In an interview with WWE’s official website, former WWE Women’s Champion Mickie James commented on a variety of topics, including when she was contacted by the company to face Asuka for the WWE NXT Women’s Championship at WWE NXT Takeover: Toronto in two weeks.

“I was sitting in the airport in Orlando, Florida, on my way to the UK, where I’ve been for almost a month now. I got the call from WWE and they asked me if I was interested.

I know who Asuka is, I’ve seen her work in Japan and NXT. She is incredibly talented. It’s cool to see someone come up and make an impact. I think for her, it’s even harder, because there’s the language barrier. But she’s this mystical kind of person.

For them to even consider me to come back and face her and, hopefully, tear the house down, is pretty awesome. It made me feel like a million bucks. I want to go in there and take it to the next level and give the people everything that they want and more.”

The interview is available in full at this link.